4 tips on pumping at work

I know the pictures have nothing to do with the subject but he’s so cute 😍😍

Continuing with last post’s subject. I went back to work after 12 weeks. If you are lucky enough to be a stay at home mom, then congrats! No need to worry about this! If you’re like me, working full time while still nursing, I’ve learned some tips along the way.

1) Let your breasts get used to pumping

I would recommend start pumping intermittently about after 6 weeks. When I first started pumping I didn’t know what to do. I was only pumping one breast at a time. And I didn’t know about the different vibration and frequency! It was all new to me! So I was not pumping out all the milk. If you don’t pump out all the milk then you start to make less and you know the story.

2) Use an electric pump with assistant

I think only Medela makes this actually. It’s like a little vest that you wear so you don’t have to sit there and hold it, like I did 😑. And going back a little bit, you should definitely pump both breasts at the same time. This is one of the many ways to increase the flow and it’s very effective! I definitely saw the difference once I started using both at the same time.

3) Buy a cover up

Now I’m all for nursing in public and all that and I don’t mean to offend anyone here on this subject. To me, I wanted a cover up. I did have a room where I was able to go in and pump, but still, personally, I wanted even a little more privacy.

4) Be consistent with the duration of pumping

This is important. Consistency is the key! If your work is flexible and you can pump up to 20 mins, then yay! If you’re on a tight schedule, I would do about 10-15 mins. When I was nursing him, I was employed with Walgreens. I was one of their pharmacists. And I’m sure you have an idea of how crazy the pharmacy can get, and especially for the pharmacist to step away, is like whhhaaaatttt now? Haha. I did it anyways. It’s not always on time, sometimes it would be 15 or 20 minutes ‘behind schedule’ but I would still go and pump. I did not have any problems with pumping while at work and I would imagine most work places are like that. And I was consistent with how long I pumped for.

That’s all that I can think of for now. As I continue to reminisce about my first year of motherhood I will share more experiences with y’all!